Little Rock Ozark Tournament

Last weekend the Bombers attended the 39th annual Ozark Tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Bombers sent three teams down for the weekend tournament; Bomber’s Academy (High School), Bombers active side, and the Bombers Old Boys.

On Saturday the Academy side played against Penn State in the opening match. The Academy side struggled to get the offense going and fell behind two tries as Penn State controlled the ball. A big break came when Jordan Sebacher found an opening and out ran the defense to get the Bombers on the board. Defense played tough but the Academy side fell to Penn State 22-10. The Academy faced OSU for their second game of the day and came out hard. OSU was leading 17-14 for the first half, but the Academy side was able to get a try in before half to take the lead 19-17. You’ve probably heard any coach say “…you need to switch it on”, I’m not sure if that’s what John Watson told his team but the Academy side did flip a switch. The intensity and speed really picked up as the Academy team beat OSU 41-17 and will face Memphis on Sunday. Being one of the youngest team in the tournament, the Academy side played against a very good Memphis college team in the championship game. Despite their best efforts the Bomber’s Academy side fell to Memphis 37-5. All the kids played very tough and very good rugby during the tournament and the Bomber’s club looks forward to these kids playing at a higher level.

The Bombers Old Boys faced Dallas in their first match of the tournament. It looked like the Old Boys have been practicing for weeks as they beat Dallas 58-14. There were a lot of big hits and huge runs that gave the Old Boys their victory. The Bombers Old Boys would play the Olde Grey Slime in the championship match and it was much of the same from the first game. The Old Boys controlled the ball and would beat the Olde Grey Slime 38-7 to take the Old Boy Championship.

The Bombers active side had 6 props starting, making it one of the biggest packs in the tournament. The Bombers would face against two teams they’ve already played against earlier in the season. The Bombers first match was against Memphis, which was the season opener for the DII side. The pack controlled the scrums and line outs as the first try was off a maul driven in. The Bombers beat Memphis 48-0 and will face Tulsa in the second match of the day. Tulsa is always a tough team and despite beating them earlier in the season the Bombers cannot take them lightly. The pack was key in the game as the Bombers drove back every scrum and controlled the ball on offense. The Bombers would beat Tulsa 39-7 to go onto the championship game against the Gryphons on Sunday.

The Gryphons were looking for a victory as they came out fast and hard as they were first to score. The Bombers were struggling to get the offense going in the first half, but the defense kept the Gryphons out of the try zone. In the second half the Bombers offense controlled the ball for almost the whole half and put up 33 unanswered points! Mark Menne was able to pick apart the defense and Zach Hawkins (who is not a small man) got “Man of the Weekend” for his 60 meter run & try, out running the defense! The Bombers would go on to win the Ozark Championship beating the Gryphons 33-12.

The Bombers would like to thank Little Rock Rugby for hosting another great tournament and we look forward to next year. We would also like to thank everyone that came down, Academy, active, and Old Boys and hope we have more for next year.

Don’t forget we will be having an end of the season party this Saturday, November 17th, at Colombos starting at 7PM. We are still having the Bomber’s Food drive and if you can please bring a canned food to Colombos this weekend to help out the needy.